


Flight, The

by westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist



Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-07-08
Updated: 2003-07-08
Packaged: 2019-05-15 11:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14789492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist/pseuds/westwingfanfictioncentral_archivist
Summary: Josh makes a discovery





	Flight, The

**Author's Note:**

> A copy of this work was once archived at National Library, a part of the [ West Wing Fanfiction Central](https://fanlore.org/wiki/West_Wing_Fanfiction_Central), a West Wing fanfiction archive. More information about the Open Doors approved archive move can be found in the [announcement post](http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/8325).

**The Flight**

**by:** Cathy

**Character(s):** Josh/ Donna  
**Pairing(s):** Josh/ Donna  
**Category(s):** Romance  
**Rating:** CHILD  
**Summary:** Josh makes a discovery  


“He didn’t!”

“I’m telling you, he did!” 

“Donna, even Sam wouldn’t have the nerve to come onto a woman like that. He can’t have”

“A woman like WHAT Josh?” Donna begins to pout. “Didn’t you like my friend?”

“Yes! I mean, well don’t you think she’s a bit too...glamorous... for Sam?”

“No, Sam’s been out with..... Josh! You were attracted to her!!”

“No I wasn’t!”

“You were!” Now Donna is laughing. “You fancied Cassie? That’s why you didn’t want Sam to go out with her.”

 “I did not! That’s ridiculous.”

“Then why wont you believe Sam came on to her? You’re jealous!!”

“No I’m not! Just... Shut up!”

“Ooh, mature Josh!”

Josh leaned back in his airplane seat, and closed his eyes, intent on ignoring the scarily acute Donna.

Donna attempted to smother her giggles, as she shuffled to get comfortable. Kicking her legs up over the empty seat on the other side of her, she leant her head down on Josh’s shoulder and sighed as they sped back to D.C. Thinking back over the weekend conference they’d attended she quietly giggled again as she fell into a contented sleep.

Josh shifted in his seat to let Donna rest more comfortably against him, as they settled into their familiar positions. Hearing Donna’s breathing slow and deepen he knew she was finally asleep, and looked down upon her quietly sleeping form.

“Now why can’t you always be like this?” he quietly whispered at her

“I know what you mean, son.” A voice floated over to Josh from the other side of the aisle.

Twisting in his seat he saw an older man grinning at him. “Peace at last, hey?”

Josh chuckled quietly to himself, as he nodded at the man. “Josh Lyman.” He stretched a hand to the other man.

“Peter Swift.” The old man introduced himself, accepting Josh’s outstretched hand. “I always appreciate them much more when they’re asleep.  They almost appear helpless, well...for a moment anyway.”

“Until you receive the razor sharp tongue that is!” Josh quipped back, earning a knowing laugh from the man.

“Amen, brother! Say, what happened to an age when women should be seen and not heard?!”

Josh grinned as he glanced back at Donna. “That’s something she’s never heard of before, that’s for sure”

“Yeah, I couldn’t help hearing your um.. ‘debate’... earlier. You know, she reminds me of how my wife used to be. Always had a comeback of some kind.”

“That sounds like Donna indeed!”

“You know I never understood why, but my wife always brought out the same in me. This may sound strange to you, but I think we both argued for the sake of enjoying the argument more than any other reason.”

“I know what you mean.” Josh remarked, surprised to hear someone describing his and Donna’s relationship.

“Do you?’ remarked the man, not entirely surprised to hear that. “Ever find yourself inventing issues to bait her, just for the fun of the argument?”

“Hell, yeah!” Josh agreed. “She gets very passionate defending her side, I can’t help baiting her!”

 “It reminds me of how honoured I am to be with such an intelligent woman as well. Naturally we started that way to hide our true feelings, but like you we found that we continued the banter even after we got together, as it was the way we most enjoyed showing our feelings in public. I’m guessing you’re not one for public shows of affection either?” the man grinned at his younger counterpart.

“Um....no.”

Josh froze for a moment, wondering how best to explain that he and Donna weren’t actually a couple like the man had presumed. 

Before he got the chance Peter cut in. “Same here. You know, our banter was actually a running joke among our friends. They knew that I was useless without her. For all the insults, and times she threatened to leave me- at least 5 times a day- we both knew that if I didn’t have her I’d be lost. I only made it to appointments if she reminded me of it every 5 minutes beforehand.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Josh found himself caught up in Peter’s story despite himself.

“I don’t know why society held that men were cleverer than women for so long. I’m ashamed to think of how much more common sense Sheila had than me.”

Josh felt Donna shiver beside him. Glancing down he saw that she was still asleep, but with noticeable goosebumps on her skin, from the over effective air conditioning above them. Reaching down to the floor, being careful not to jolt her sleeping form, he picked up his jacket from under his seat, and gently placed it over her, tucking it in around her arms and up to her chin. The sleeping Donna shifted contentedly, and satisfied that she was alright, he returned his attention back to his fellow traveller.

Peter had watched the young couple with a barely repressed smile. God, the young man was so obvious! Still, he clearly cared deeply for the girl, and that was what counted at the end of the day.  He forced himself to remove his amused smile, as Josh turned back to him with a question.

 “You speak in past tense, sir. Do you mind if I ask why you’re not still with you’re wife?”

“Sheila died 9 years ago.” He brushed away Josh’s murmurs of sympathy. “It was quite amazing actually. As she knew she was dying, she spent her last few months making sure all our affects were in order. Even though she was the one with the terminal illness, her first concern was still with me. That’s something isn’t it?” The old man shook his head as he lost himself in thought.

Josh waited while the old man collected his thoughts again. 

“You know I was ill for a while too.” Peter finally spoke again. “Not long after she had been first diagnosed. And she looked after me. Boy did she look after me! She practically ran herself into the ground those weeks. No sleep for days, doing both our jobs at once, and never once complained. The daft fool didn’t even tell me about her diagnosis until after I was better.” He chuckled again, at the thought of his late wife.  “Stubborn, she was. Wouldn’t take no for an answer. I learnt very quickly not to even try standing up to her.”

“She sounds a special woman, sir” Josh replied.

“Oh she was.” Peter smiled at the young man next to him. “We may have argued a lot, but when it came down to it, we loved each other. I guess that showed through, even in our silly arguments.

Women talk a lot about their ‘rights’ these days, and their need to be independent. Well, son, I’ll tell you, don’t believe a word of it!”

Josh looked momentarily confused, at the sudden change in conversation. “Excuse me, sir?”

“Well now, just how well do you think you could cope, without that young woman at your side there?”

Josh didn’t have to think for a single moment, before he laughed. “I’d fall to pieces pretty quickly.”

“That’s right. So why do you think it’s any different for the women? We need them, most of us couldn’t function properly without the women in our lives, if we’re honest! And I’ll tell you now, it’s the same for them. They too like to be looked after, to be loved, and to have someone who’s there to protect them.”

Peter paused for breath, and Josh didn’t say anything for a while, as he sat thinking. Then Peter started speaking again.

“There’s nothing shameful in that. It’s what we’re here for, to look out for each other. Of course women these days can be as tough as nails, and I say good for them. But that doesn’t change the fact that even they’d like to have someone to come home to, someone to help ease the aching muscles, and do nothing more than just chat about how the day’s gone. At other times, maybe it’s a shoulder to cry on, that we all need. 

Just make sure you’re there for her, young man. She’ll be there for you, you can rely on that. So make sure she knows that she can rely on you. And that you, her man, will be the one she can turn to, when that’s what she needs.

We can’t protect our women from the world, unfortunately, so lets just try to make it as damn good for them as we can! It’s nice to be needed, and we are.” 

At that moment the stewardess moved among them, handing out complimentary blankets for the plane’s designated “night”.

For a while both men were silent, and then after the girl moved away Peter spoke again, quieter this time. For a moment Josh wasn’t sure if the man was speaking to him, or to himself.

 “I was wrong about one thing. It turns out Sheila wasn’t just the best thing in my life. She was my life. 

I wish I’d realised that while she was still here.”

The old man then begun to busy himself with getting comfortable to sleep, placing the blanket around himself and leaning the seat back, signalling the conversation closed. 

Kicking the chair back himself, Josh knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep, thinking back over what the old man had said to him.

He wasn’t disturbed that Peter had presumed he and Donna to be married, lots of people made that mistake at first. What alarmed him was that he hadn’t corrected the other man. He’d had lots of opportunities to simply explain, but he hadn’t. Why hadn’t he?

He thought of what else the man had said. Was it true they bantered to hide their feelings for each other?

Everything else the man had said had been describing them exactly. Is it possible they can be identical to that couple in so many ways, except not be a couple?

It didn’t seem likely. In that case what does it mean?

Could he be in love with Donnatella Moss?

Sure he liked her, she was a good friend, and always made him laugh. And he did care for her. But that was only because she was a friend wasn’t it? Friends don’t want to see other friends get hurt.

And yeah if anyone hurt her he would, and had, go after them with a baseball bat.

He didn’t need Peter to tell him to be protective of Donna, he was already.

He thought of the image Peter had painted. Of being there for Donna, not just now, as her boss. But being able to help her, and protect her, for the rest of their lives.

He had to admit, that made a very appealing image

But did that mean he loved her? 

Could he see himself holding her? Sure, he’d done it loads of times. He quite liked the feel of comforting her as she cried on his shoulder.

Kissing her? Could he see himself kissing Donna? His Donna?

Wait, when did she become HIS Donna? Because she was. That was how he thought of her. 

And yes. He could see himself kissing her. And he liked what he could see. 

Liked it a bit too much in fact.

He looked down at the sleeping form of Donna, his Donna, and groaned. ‘Lyman, what have you done?’

 He brushed a hair away from where it had fallen down in her face and felt a tingle in his fingers that hadn’t been there before.

‘Well done Josh.’ He thought. ‘Fall in love with your assistant. Leo will love that’

Because he couldn’t deny it, that’s what he’d done. 

He was 100% head over heels in love with his assistant, and he couldn’t hide it from himself any more.

In fact he didn’t think he could hide it from her either. Sod it, he didn’t WANT to hide it from her. 

No, he was going to have to do something about this.

Three hours later Josh woke up to hear the pilot announcing their approach to D.C. He turned to find Donna was no longer leaning on him, but rather had shifted to lean on the chair the other side of her. 

Gazing at her asleep he felt the familiar jolt that he always felt when looking at her. He mentally kicked himself for not having realised his now obvious feelings sooner. Still, he would shortly be doing something about that.

He leant down, brushed her hair away, and gently kissed her on her forehead.

She stirred, “Josh?” she murmured.

He brushed her hair from her forehead again, and this time she opened her eyes. Seeing him leaning so close to her she smiled. However upon seeing his intent look she began to worry.

“Josh? Are you okay?”

He nodded, and his hand reached out and tenderly stroked the hair away from her cheek, all the while holding her gaze.

Her eyes widened, alarmed. They usually shied away from any public displays of affection.

“Josh...?” She began to ask

“Shhhhh....” He smiled at her, and then slowly began to lean in to kiss her.

He saw her momentarily hesitate, and then lean toward him too.

Taking that as the go ahead, he gently, briefly brushed his lips against hers. 

Pulling back he saw tears rim her eyes, and he reached forward to gently press his lips to hers again. 

This time he didn’t pull away so fast, and felt her arm snake around his back, as Donna pulled him in tighter to her. 

Breaking the kiss they gazed at each other, and began to chuckle as they wrapped their arms around each other in delight. 

Josh looked over at the old man, and caught his eye. Seeing the young man so happy, Peter grinned in response and began to gather his stuff to leave. 

He looked forward to greeting his real wife, Annie, at the airport, and then going to tell his good friend CJ that their plan had been a success. 


End file.
